The Abundant Life of K

You know how sometimes in our lives, the right words hit us at just the right time? We can be exhausted on the journey and then we’ll get a cool respite in the form of beautiful words. This week I had a message that did that for me. It was a message pertaining to Ecclesiastes 3:1, the famous bible verse about seasons. This verse talks about the seasons of our lives, the seasons of our marriages, the seasons of our careers, the seasons of parenting. As I was listening, I started thinking about the seasons of my life. Which season am I facing in life? Am I doing all I can to make the most of the season I’m in? Am I ready for the next season to start?

I also started thinking about how well the baby steps coincide with the seasons analogy. We’re planting a crop of wealth and we have to tend it just as we would any other crop. I can’t throw some corn on my lawn in the middle of winter, never do anything with it and expect to have big glorious ears in September! I also can’t sit around mired in debt, never change my habits and expect wealth to pop up out of the blue!

I’ll never be able to speak or write as well as our fantastic pastor, but here are my meandering thoughts on the seasons as they apply to Dave Ramsey’s baby steps:

Winter/Pre-baby Step 1:
This can be the hardest season to face. It’s the season when nothing seems to be going right and we’re not getting anywhere. We might be behind on our bills, we might have creditors calling, or we might just find we have too much month left at the end of the money. We find ourselves thinking “there has to be something better than this”. Faced with the cold and dark, we have two choices. Give up and choose to live in stress forever or take the time to plan for the future. What would we change if we had a chance? What would we do differently going forward? What are our options? How would a new life look? We begin asking ourselves these questions and soon we start to see hope for spring. Warm weather might be just around the bend!

Spring/Baby Steps 2 & 3:
Spring is a time to plant. It’s time to put in the work in anticipation of the harvest. It’s a time when we’re putting in all the work, but we may not be seeing any rewards. Just as a seed planted doesn’t produce a crop right away, paying off debts and building emergency funds doesn’t produce wealth right away. In fact, during the back breaking work and sacrifice of spring, it can be hard to remember that we will eventually see a harvest.
Sometimes when we’re paying bills and throwing snowballs, it can feel like we’re more broke than we were at the start of the journey. The winter may have been dark and cold, but at least it was quiet and restful! Things may have gone on the credit card before and we might have been broke, but at least we could order a pizza and buy those new shoes!
It’s important for us to remember that in the end, we will reap what we sow. We can put in the work now and reap a harvest of wealth and security, or we can choose to return to winter. If we choose to return, we won’t to put in the hard work, but we won’t see the reward either.

Summer/Baby Steps 4, 5, & 6:
This is a time to nurture and protect our crops. Just as we need to feed and water our crops and protect them from the weeds that are ever encroaching, we need to feed and protect our wealth to help it grow. It’s time to feed our wealth through regular additions to our retirement and the kids’ college funds. It’s time to protect our burgeoning wealth from the constant temptations to use it.
We always have the option to cash out the emergency fund to go on vacation or stop funding college for a bit so we can buy a new boat. But what happens if we let weeds in the fields? They steal the life-blood of our crop. If we can care for our crop, we will surely see a rich harvest in the fall.
We also need to remember that summer can be a time for rest. There’s nothing wrong with having a cool drink and lying in the hammock for a while. If you’ve sown well and you’re feeding and protecting your crops, you can rest a little. Take a vacation, reward yourself. Just make sure you return quickly and with renewed vigor. Otherwise it’s not a rest, it’s an invitation for a lost crop.

Fall/Baby Step 7:
We’ve endured the winter and put a plan in place. We’ve put in the work and made the sacrifice in order to plant well. We’ve tended the crop and kept it safe. Now it’s finally time to enjoy the harvest! As my pastor said “gather unapologetically”. We’ve worked hard and been blessed, there is no reason to apologize for the harvest of wealth.
Now, we need to keep in mind that there are 3 things that need to be done with the harvest. We finally get a chance to sample it. We get to truly enjoy the fruits of our labor! Buy the boat, take the trip, for heaven sake, buy the shoes!
We also need to share it. Understand that we didn’t do the work alone. We had blessings along the way and it’s our duty to share those blessings. What’s the joy in working hard and then not celebrating with others? It’s not really a party if you’re by yourself!
And finally, we need to set some aside. If we use up all the harvest, what happens when winter comes around again? We don’t need to live in fear (after all, we started this journey to be rid of fear), but we do need to make plans for the future. A full silo means peace and security in the face of an uncertain world. Whatever gets thrown at us, we have the means to deal with it.

I wrote this post more for myself than for you dear reader. I’m in the middle of spring right now and the weather is beautiful, but the work is hard. I need to remind myself that we reap what we sow. If I’m willing to sacrifice now, just think what my table will look like come harvest! I can’t wait to invite you all to the feast!

When you’re working the baby steps and sacrificing and scrimping and saving, often the biggest thing that keeps you motivated is the progress you’re making toward financial freedom. You’re killing off your small debts, you’re putting money in savings, you’re making extra mortgage payments. It’s enough to make the day to day sacrifice worth it!

But what happens when you hit a snag and you’re not moving forward? That’s what we call a logjam. You’ve stopped up the flow of money and none of it is getting downstream to that beautiful land called “financial peace”.

So how do you get the obstacles out of the way and restart the flow? Well, desperate times call for desperate measures. Logjams are a great time to look really closely at your life and see where you can make changes.

There are two basic ways to break a jam. You can either bring in more money or you can send out less money. Pretty basic, right? So, take a close look at your budget (if you don’t have a written budget, start here) and see if there is anywhere you can make a cut.

Do you have a car that you’re paying on every month? Can you sell it, stockpile some cash and get a reliable used car? The average American car payment is around $380 a month. You could do some serious debt destroying with that money. You might have to drive a beater now, but think how fantastic it will feel to drive your dream car DEBT FREE someday! Edmunds.com did an interesting series of articles about debt free driving, check it out for a great read!

What if you don’t have a car payment? Even cutting a little fat can make a difference. Do you have cable? Do you have a lot of blow money? Are you using extra gas? Making small cuts makes a difference financially, but more importantly it makes a difference psychologically. Instead of being stuck on the sidelines watching your cash flow back up behind those logs, you’re in the river shoving obstacles out of the way. Often we just need to feel like we’re doing something! Sometimes a small change can make all the difference in the world!

So, say you really don’t have anything to cut. You’re already living on dollar store mac n’ cheese and reading newspapers you snagged from the trash for entertainment. You really, truly have no place to cut. Then you need to get some dynamite for those logs baby!

If you can’t reduce the outgo, you have to change the income! So, it may be time to add a temporary part time job. Can you wait tables or deliver pizza? These are jobs where even a few hours a week can bring in some sweet cash! If you’re a stay at home mom, would you consider offering childcare for one or two extra children? What about working nights at a grocery store or taking in some freelance work? Any of these things could provide the bang you need to get the river flowing again!

If you don’t have the ability to get a part time job and your budget is already anorexic there are still a couple of options. Do you have anything hanging around the house that you could part with? A motorcycle? A jet ski? A video game system? Heck, I once saw a listing on Craigslist for a $1 ice cube tray. It may not be worth your time to sell the ice cube trays, but extra clothes, out grown baby gear, supplies for a hobby you’ve long since given up are all good things to sell to make a little extra dough.

The main thing to remember when you hit a snag in your journey is that you’re in control! You have choices and options to get things moving again. As long as you remember that any stop is temporary and you have nowhere to go but down river!

1)      Go in with a plan.  Scour Pinterest or Polyvore.com for outfits you like and look for those pieces.  It makes the whole process less overwhelming.  Plus, when your husband asks what you’re doing on Pinterest all day (not that my husband ever has reason to ask that question), you can say you’re doing research to save money.

2)      Many thrift stores have regular 50% off days.  On these days, most merchandise is ½ off; talk about a bargain!  Now, if you go on ½ off day, be mentally and physically prepared because it can be a little scary and a whole lot crazy.  Go early and know what you’re looking for!

3)      Don’t take the kids.  If you’re like me, you love nothing more than taking your 7 year old boy child with you on a clothing expedition!  Sometimes though, I lose my mind and think that I can just run in really quick with the kids and knock one more thing off my list.  I always, always, always pay for this delusional thought.  Thrift store shopping means taking time find the good stuff and it’s hard to look patiently with kiddos in tow.

4)      Look for quality designer labels.  Many, many people donate their quality designer items.  Maybe it was a gift that wasn’t their style, maybe the color was off, maybe their husband thought the “these don’t fit me right now, but they will someday when I revert to my 18 year old body” box was a “let’s be honest, this is never ever going to fit me again” box and donated it. Whatever, their loss is your gain.  Look for classic, quality pieces and scoop them up.

5)      Don’t be afraid to check out the shoe section.  I have a weird thing about used shoes.  I will not put them on.  2^nd hand clothes, no problem, but shoes skeeve me out.  However, by checking out the shoe section, I’ve been able to find new shoes with the tags still on them.  Also, when I see a pair in fantastic shape, I turn them over and check out the bottom.  I’ve found a couple of pairs that have zero wear on them.  I can’t guarantee that no foot has ever been inside them, but I can virtually guarantee they’ve never actually been worn.

6)      Be careful of the sizing.  I opt not to try things on in thrift stores, which is my personal neurosis, so I have to be extra careful about sizes.  Just like any other store, things may have been miss labeled, they may have been put back in the wrong place, they may just be oddly sized.  Whatever they case, look carefully to determine if something is the appropriate size.  And if you don’t share my neurosis, by all means, try things on.

7)      If you strike out, check back.  The inventory is changing every day.  If you’re patient, you’ll find what you’re looking for.

So those are my absolute favorite tips.  Again, don’t be afraid to give it a try.  I promise that if you do it right, no one will be able to tell that you’re outfitted in thrift store chic!

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it isn’t a train!

We decided earlier this month to list our rental home for sale. It is a huge percentage of our debt (because, you know, it’s an extra HOUSE we have just sitting around!) and once we sell that bad boy, we’ll be out of Baby Step 2!

If you had asked me a year ago, I would have told you that all those “anti-debt” “Dave Ramsey people” were a little crazy. I had no idea how great it would feel to be living without monthly debt payments hanging over our heads!

Send us some prayers and positive vibes for a quick and easy sale!